Shutter job 760 pieces later

eligius1427 - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 12:22pm

All right Nathan, here is the end result of my little shutter project. I ended up cutting the basic shapes by hand with a plasma torch, and then hammering them out(by hand) to size, final shape and texture. The pieces were then welded together. I just sent it off to get blasted and powder coated so I'll try to post pictures of the installed shutters later. I've included picts from throughout the process.

shutter 1

shutter 2

shutter 3

shutter 4

shutter 5

shutter 6

shutter 7

tongs: This is my first pair of tongs I've made. The tongs I had bought were too bulky for the small pieces I was working with and I kept burning my hands reaching into the forge. I angle the end so my hands could stay to the side of the furnace while I was gr

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Beautiful

Frank Castiglione - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 1:21pm

Hi Jake,
Simply beautiful! My wrists hurt just looking at all that detail.
Frank

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Thanks Frank, It wasn't too

eligius1427 - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 6:23pm

Thanks Frank, It wasn't too bad on the wrists after I decided to go the route of plasma cutting the rough shapes first. It sure makes me respect all of the work done before power tools so much more.

The finished eagle turned out great by the way. You should be really proud.

Jake

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Killer! On the wrist, on the

Nathan Logsdon - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 2:45pm

Killer! On the wrist, on the hand and on the page! Looks really good Jake. In the words of a therapist" ..so what have we learned from this?" I am sure the client will be pleased and I know you will be when it is installed. Once again, great job. I should have pics of the acanthus rail soon, then we can just sit around and complain about how bad our arms ache!

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Thanks Nathan, I doubt the

eligius1427 - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 6:39pm

Thanks Nathan, I doubt the toll on my wrist and arms was as bad as the toll all of those acanthus leaves delivered. It was a huge learning experience for me, and I might still be working on piece #87 or whatever had it not been for the advice and guidance from you and the other members on this site. Thanks again. The lesson is this: 700 forged pieces = Power Hammer x Practice. I did enjoy the hands on forge work a lot more than most of my past jobs. Each piece required thought and attention, yet after a while a rhythm developed which was easy to keep up with(and I wasn't wearing a welding helmet all day!). I think I'm going to enjoy exploring this avenue of work and will be looking forward to building/buying a power and a treadle hammer.

Jake

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On that subject- I just

Nathan Logsdon - Thursday, January 24, 2008 - 8:38am

On that subject- I just finished my treadle hammer and a small jib crane last week. I can tell you that I am very excited about the potential for the treadle. I'll post pics soon and once again- great job. BTW- what kind of hammers do you typically use?

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Right now I use a

eligius1427 - Thursday, January 24, 2008 - 2:45pm

Right now I use a "machinists" cross peen, a farrier rounding, and a "dinging" hammer the most. I hope those labels are the right ones, that's how the website listed them anyway. I like the dinging hammer the most for this job because it had a wide lightly rounded face which had a fullering affect. I'm still experimenting and hope to invest in a few more hammers. I'm intrigued by Hofi's hammers, do you have any experience with them? His ergonomic view point makes some sense on paper.

Jake

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